Monday, July 30, 2012

I made this for dessert last night when my mum and step father came over for dinner. The recipe is from the latest Food magazine which used to be known as the Foodtown magazine. As a lot of you know I am an avid cooking magazine/cookbook buyer. I try not to be as I have far too many of them than I know what to do with but I really just can't help myself. I do subscribe to quite a few already but unfortunately for me, and fortunately for the magazines, I also buy them as soon as they come out. I have discovered though that the Donna Hay is available on my ipad and for much much cheaper so yes, I did also subscribe to that. Well at least it saves a bit of space and I was saving quite a bit of money (there is always a justification). So if you are interested go to itunes and search for Donna Hay and go for it. I do find that I refer to it less but at least I know I have it if I NEED it...as you do....!

Back to this recipe. It's best to start this in the morning so the filling has a chance to get nice and cold. If it is warm when you put it into the pastry, the pastry will melt and not taste as good. The pastry was easily made in my food processor. I found the dough a little soft so when I cut the strips I put them back in the fridge to firm up before I put them onto the tart. I served this with Chantilly Cream (basically cream whipped with icing sugar and vanilla paste to get the nice little flecked seeds look), and custard and we all really enjoyed it. I would make this again for sure.

Apple Rhubarb Lattice Tart with Spiced Crust

4 medium cooking apples, peeled and chopped200 g rhubarb cut into large chunks1/4 c each sugar and water

Put into a pot and cover until boiling. Simmer with the lid off until the fruit has softened. Cool completely.

Put the flour, sugar and spices into the food processor and blitz to combine. Add in the butter which has been cut into chunks and process until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the yolks and milk and process until it just forms a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and rest int he fridge for about 30 mins. Then grease and a 23 cm loose bottom tin and line with the pastry. I rolled mine out and then patched it up as it was a bit soft.You will use about 2/3 of the pastry, then roll out the rest and cut into strips. I put mine back into the fridge for about an hour along with the strips.

When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180 C. Fill the pastry with the fruit and then arrange the strips over in a lattice pattern. Bake about 40-45 mins. Leave in the tin about 5-10 mins then remove, dust with icing sugar and enjoy.

Monday, July 23, 2012

So in my last post I said I had made two things for nightshift on Friday. I think I was feeling a bit bad because I have been so distracted lately with the house things so overcompensated and made two things. As well as that I really enjoyed having some time in the kitchen again. I'm on the last leg of house stuff now....and quite possibly the worst leg. This time I have to empty all the rooms of pretty much everything so the new carpet can be laid. When I look around the house through post nightshift, no-sleep eyes it all seems very overwhelming as there is only a smallish lounge to put it all in. Luckily they will move the furniture but everything else has to be done by me. No wonder people don't get carpet laid all the time because it is almost (and I say almost) not worth it.

Anyway I digress once again.... clearly I'm a little preoccupied! These cupcakes were ok. I'm not sure if I overcooked them a little or if I should have done the swirls a little differently. They tasted ok but I missed the tenderness of a good Red Velvet Cupcake and the cream cheese layer could have been more cheesecakey. The recipe was from Marion Keyes 'Saved By Cake' but I'm not sure that I will post the recipe as I don't think I will make them again. If you do want the recipe let me know and I'll edit this post to include it.

Well I'm off again to relook at all the work I have to do....I'll be back in my more normal capacity in a week or so......

Friday, July 20, 2012

Wow it has been so long since I posted anything significant on my blog. The whirlwind that has been my life for the last month is slowly getting less ferocious as the house stuff is almost finished, my torn calf muscle gets better and better, and the effect of the school holidays wears off. Granted our house is looking lovely but it has been a marathon effort and one which has left me in awe of those people who embark on a huge renovation....and even more amazing who live in the house while it is happening. And we have most certainly NOT been doing anything too major but if I ever mention that I'm about to paint something, remind me of the nightmare that it is and how I said right here that I would NEVER EVER do it again......weeeeelllll maybe after the bathrooms and toilet is finished in the very distant future......! Once the carpet goes in in a week or so, I will be able to totally relax and bake my heart out.

But today I treated myself as a post-last-room-painted treat to baking some things for nightshift tonight. I made two things and will post about the other thing tomorrow if I can. As you might know I love love love bundt cakes. I love the tins and the shapes and they are deceptively easy to make for the high visual impact they have. As everything has gone by the by, so has keeping up with all the blogs I follow. I starred this recipe more recently so when I was looking for something to make found this at the top of the page. I had frozen blueberries in the freezer so used these instead of fresh. Here in NZ it's winter so it was lovely to get a bit of summer with this cake especially while looking out at the brilliant blue sky (even though it was pretty cold) outside. I tasted a small bit of this cake in the interests of this blog of course, and I can say that it has the most lovely light texture and the flavour of lemon is delicate but also not shy... if you know what I mean? I love rubbing the lemon zest into the sugar as it really does give it a whole new lemon vibe. Try this recipe and you will not be disappointed. You can find it here.

My name is Megan and I live in Auckland with my partner Dons and two sons Reuben and Harry. I started this blog because I love to bake and cook...although I have to say that baking is my real passion. I work in NICU and work a lot of night shifts which means that I always have somewhere to take my baking (so I don't eat it all). I hope you enjoy my blog.